Montblanc announce their luxury Android Wear watch

The other day we saw TAG Heuer announce their new modular Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch. At the time they encouraged other luxury watchmakers to join them in this segment of the market and today we saw their first competitor join the fray — Montblanc.

After teasing of a #BeAHEAD event for the last few weeks on their social media channels, last night they announced their luxury smartwatch running Android Wear 2.0 with the hashtag #BeAHEAD. The new smartwatch from Montblanc is called the Summit.

The Montblanc Summit is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 CPU, has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The display is a curved 1.39in, 400×400 pixel AMOLED display. The casing is 12.5mm thick and 46mm wide with a 300mAh battery keeping it going all day and only an IP68 water resistance rating.

As for sensors it has a heart rate sensor, a barometer, an ambient light sensor and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. It runs Android Wear 2.0 which should be a given for any watch releasing in 2017.

So what doesn’t it have?

NFC — this is a big omission as possibly the main feature people want in an Android wear 2.0 watch is Android Pay. For the price of a luxury watch you would expect to not be missing anything.

GPS — not a huge omission but their competitor in the luxury segment has it. Considering the Summit comes with three months of free access to Runtastic the omission of a GPS is a strange choice.

LTE — not something most people will use but some do want it, especially with the capability of Android Wear 2.0 standalone apps.

Customisation

Just as with the TAG Heuer smartwatch, there are customisation options for the Summit. There are four different styles of casings — black PVD coated stainless steel, a bi-colour stainless steel case with a black PVD coated stainless steel bezel, stainless steel case with satinated finish and a grade 5 titanium case with a satinated finish. There are also eight different styles of strap available — rubber in various colours, and various leather colours and styles. Montblanc are offering all their classic watchfaces in digital format or you can pay a cool €15,000 to have Montblanc’s creative director make one for you.

The Montblanc Summit is a luxury watch so expect to pay for this luxury. The Summit starts at US$890 and the titanium models will cost US$980. At this stage they will go on sale exclusively through Mr Porter in May and there is no word on if or when they will ever make it to our shores.
Is anyone actually interested in a luxury Android Wear watch? What is your must-have feature in a smartwatch?

Scott Plowman Associate Editor

Scott is our modding guru - he has his finger on the pulse of all things ‘moddable’, pointing us towards all the cutting edge mods hacks that are available. When he’s not gymming it up, or scanning the heck out of Nexus devices, you'll find him on the Ausdroid Podcast.

Outside of Ausdroid, Scott's a health care professional and lecturer at a well known Victorian university.

“Luxury android wear watch” is an oxymoron. As per the Ausdroid article the other day, all the smart watch offerings are pretty poor. Just because something is ridiculously expensive doesn’t make it luxury.

At least it has an always on display. I would not spend 5c on a watch that requires you to jerk your arm or press a button just to read the time. I have had a smart watch like that – it now gathers dust. Android Pay on a watch is not a big deal for me as I always have my phone for that. I can see a runner liking the function so they can buy drinks or food on the way without carrying anything more than a watch. I ride a bike and my phone always goes too.… Read more »